Archive | May 5th, 2011

NOVANEWS

by crescentandcross

Former US President George W. Bush

Former US President George W. Bush has said that his “War on Terror” would continue despite the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” Bush said in a statement on Monday. He made the remarks after US President Barack Obama called him in Dallas to inform him that bin Laden was dead, a Bush spokesman said.

Obama said in a televised speech late Sunday that US forces conducted an operation that killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Analysts and military experts believe that the United States delayed the killing of bin Laden to continue the presence of US-led forces in war-torn Afghanistan, a Press TV correspondent reported.

US House Speaker John Boehner also said, “We continue to face a complex and evolving terrorist threat, and it is important that we remain vigilant in our efforts to confront and defeat the terrorist enemy and protect the American people.”

The so-called “War on Terror,” was introduced by Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil.

Under Bush, the US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 under the pretext to hunt down the al-Qaeda leader, who claimed responsibility for the terrorist assault, and to bring peace and stability to the country.

However, the US has failed to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and militants are making gains 10 years after the invasion.

Analysts and military experts believe that the United States had delayed the killing of bin Laden to continue the presence of US-led forces in war-torn Afghanistan, a Press TV correspondent reported. The lack of transparency over bin Laden’s death has cast further doubt over the announcement.

Meanwhile, a US official says bin Laden’s body has been buried at sea, alleging that his hasty burial was in accordance with Islamic law, which requires burial within 24 hours of death.

This is while burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not determine a timeframe for burial.

The official added that finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted man was difficult, so the US decided to bury him at sea.

NOVANEWS

The controversial U.S. pastor, Terry Jones, who earned infamy for being behind ‘Burn a Koran Day’ leads a very small church of 50 members in Florida.

A deposition obtained by CBS News from a court case last month raises question about how much Pastor Jones even knows about his controversial cause. Cbs.new

Jones had asked for a permit to protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday, a time when both the mosque and four nearby churches were expected to be crowded with worshipers.

Dearborn police had denied Jones’s request and asked him to protest instead in a “free speech zone” in front of one of the city buildings.

April 28, 2011: Terry Jones, Qur’an burner and all-around pot stirrer, planned to appeal a court’s decision against him last week scotching his protest outside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich.

April 4, 2011: Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, finally followed through on his threat to burn a copy of the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book.

Amid a heavy police presence, Pastor Terry Jones delivered a rambling speech Friday from the steps of Dearborn City Hall that lashed out at Islam and President Barack Obama, but much of his words were drowned out by the voices of a swarm of protesters across the street who called him a bigot. Freep.com

In his talk, Jones repeated what he has been saying for weeks. But it was more insulting, protesters said. At one point, Jones said Islam promotes lying. Freep.com

The 58-year-old former hotel manager worked as a missionary in Europe for 30 years. He took over as head of the Dove World Outreach Center, a fundamentalist Christian church in Gainesville, Florida in 1996 and is often seen on the church’s 20-acre compound with a pistol strapped to his hip. Irishexaminer.com

During three decades as a missionary in Germany, he recruited nearly 1,000 churchgoers, according to a pro Christian magazine in Germany that interviewed several former members for an article published in September. In Cologne, the article said, Jones was no longer spreading the Gospel so much as “creating his own empire.”

Terry Jones (and his second wife Sylvia) left Germany in 2008 after one of their three adult children… along with a former church elder… accused them of financial and labor abuses. Huffington Post

His daughter, Emma Jones, who still lives in Germany, was one of those accusing her father and stepmother of wrongdoing. Emma Jones has broken with the church, calling it a “cult” that “forced us with oppression to be obedient”. Irishexaminer.com

Prior to bringing his own brand of preaching to America, Jones was ejected from a church in Cologne by congregation members in 2009 for being a Christian fundamentalist. Daily Mail

In addition to forbidding free expression, there were a number of ‘financial irregularities’ when Jones and his wife Sylvia were in charge. Daily Mail

Andrew Schafer, an official responsible for monitoring churches in the region of Cologne said people who were ministered by Jones are still in therapy for ‘spiritual abuse’. Daily Mail

Jones is the author of “Islam Is of the Devil.” That phrase also adorns several billboards on his church’s property. irishexaminer.com

August 2009: Two children, a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old, who belonged to Jones’ church, were sent to school wearing T-shirts that read “Islam Is of the Devil.” They were sent home for dress code violations. Abcnews.go.com

Terry Jones issued a blizzard of statements since he first announced (via Twitter) that he would burn Qur’ans on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

August 26, 2010: The New York Times reported that Jones planned a bonfire of Qur’ans because, he said, it is “full of lies.” Voices.washingtonpost.com

As the Washington Post reported, Jones tweeted multiple messages in mid-July, saying Islam was akin to fascism, criticizing President Obama’s support for a Kenyan constitution that would allow abortion and support Islamic law. Articles.nydailynews.com

Two days after announcing that he would burn Qur’ans, EuroIslam.Info — an Islamic news monitoring group headed by a Harvard professor of divinity — printed the group’s mission statement “to bring to awareness the dangers of Islam and that the Koran (Qur’an) is leading people to hell” and posted it on its website. Articles.nydailynews.com

Nine days later, the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Jones. Articles.nydailynews.com

July 30, 2010: The National Association of Evangelicals, one of the largest collections of such churches, denounced the event and urged Jones to call it off.

September 2010: Pastor Terry Jones, the head of a small church in Florida, called off his plans to burn the Qur’an after attracting criticism from around the world. BBC.co.uk

September 8, 2010: “Jesus would not run around burning books,” Jones said, “but I think he would burn this one (the Qur’an).” Articles.nydailynews.com

September 9, 2010: In a press conference with Imam Muhamad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, Jones said he would cancel the Qur’an burning event. Voices.washingtonpost.com

Later reports quoted Jones as saying, “We felt that that would be a sign that God would want us to do it…The American people do not want the mosque there and, of course, Muslims do not want us to burn the Qur’an.” Jones also stated he was against any other groups burning Qur’ans. Voices.washingtonpost.com

Jones had asked for a permit to protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday, a time when both the mosque and four nearby churches were expected to be crowded with worshipers. Islamophobia-watch.com

Dearborn police had denied Jones’s request and asked him to protest instead in a “free speech zone” in front of one of the city buildings. Islamophobia-watch.com

April 28, 2011: The Reverend Terry Jones, Qur’an burner and all-around pot stirrer, planned to appeal a court’s decision against him last week scotching his protest outside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan. Recordnet.com

April 23, 2011: Jones was jailed on Friday after a Michigan court determined that his planned demonstration outside a mosque was likely to provoke violence and he refused to pay a $1 bond. Islamophobia-watch.com

April 4, 2011: Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, finally followed through on his threat to burn a copy of the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book. Usnews.com

In March, 2011, the pastor of a tiny church in Florida dressed up in a judge’s robes and held a mock trial in which he pronounced a death sentence upon the Qur’an, an order he then carried out using kerosene and a barbecue lighter. Huffington Post

Terry Jones, the radical pastor who oversaw the burning of a Qur’an in his Florida church in March 2011, after a mock court hearing, may put the Islamic prophet Mohammed on trial in his next ‘day of judgment’, he told The Sunday Telegraph. Thinkprogress.org

“This is not a day of joy for me, it is a day that makes the pain feel sharper and take me back. I’m supposed to be happy? I’m mourning.” She also expressed concerns over the possibility that “revenge attacks will occur and innocent people will be killed.”

Shai was employed by a subsidiary of Cantor-Fitzgerald on the 103rd floor of the first building to be hit. His mother said that she isn’t sure he would have felt joy over the act of vengeance.

“He would have felt sad that this had to happen and that this is what happens in the world today,” she said.

Brigadier General Dov Shefi, father of Hagai Shefi who was also killed in the 9/11 attacks, feels that bin-Laden’s assassination is a case of “too little too late.” “What happened today prevented me from following my daily routine, I turned around, went to the cemetery in Yahud and cried their like a baby for an hour. I told him justice has been done, even if a little late.”

Shefi, a former military prosecutor, said he felt no reason to be happy.

“There is no reason for joy, it’s just a feeling of belated justice and not as Obama has said with pride that justice has been done.”

Posted in ZIO-NAZIComments Off on Families of 5 Israeli 9/11 victims: Too little, too late

NOVANEWS

by crescentandcross

After a NATO strike killed members of Moammar Gadhafi’s family in Tripoli, a handful of senators reiterated their calls for the Libyan dictator to be ousted from power.

On the Sunday talk shows Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said that Gadhafi should be removed from power.

Their comments come less than 24 hours after a NATO attack narrowly missed Gadhafi but killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren, according to the Libyan government.

The three GOP senators all warned that it would be dangerous to leave Gadhafi in power and McCain said he was “fine” with Gadhafi being killed in a bombing.

“In my view, wherever Gadhafi goes, he is the legitimate military target. He’s the command and control source. He’s not the legitimate leader of Libya. And the way to get to this to end is to go after the people around him and his support network,” Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So, I support what NATO is doing.”

Similarly, Rubio said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the worst possible scenario would be for Gadhafi to be allowed to stay in power.

“For Moammar Gadhafi to hold on to power in Libya would be the worst possible scenario I could imagine,” Rubio said.

McCain stressed his previous calls for the U.S. to retake control over the operation in Libya after it handed over command to NATO.

“We should be taking out his command and control, and if he is killed or injured because of that, that’s fine,” McCain said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

When the United Nations Security Council passed a no-fly zone resolution for Libya the United States took the lead in enforcing it before handing command over to NATO.

Conrad said the way to oust Gadhafi was to take out the “pillars” propping him up.

“Look, Gadhafi has got to go,” Conrad also said on “Face the Nation.” “I said repeatedly, I think you go after the pillars of his power. And the pillars of his power are the regimes that are controlled by his sons, the mercenaries that he’s brought in from other countries, his money and his tribe.”

When asked whether he was okay with assassinating Gadhafi directly, Conrad said that there were “legal issues” involved in doing that.

“Well, we have legal issues I’m not an expert on. It is stated policy that we are not targeting an individual,” Conrad said.

The comments from the senators come after the Obama administration announced roughly two weeks ago that it had authorized the use of aerial predator drones in Libya. Before the U.S. got involved in Libya in March, Obama and lawmakers across the political spectrum had been calling for Gadhafi to relinquish power. When the president authorized U.S. involvement in Libya, he pledged not to put any American boots on the ground.

The Obama administration has repeatedly said it wants Gadhafi removed from power but the Libyan people, not the U.S. would have to remove him. The U.S. presence is to protect Libyan civilians from Gadhafi’s military, the administration has said.

NOVANEWS

Dear All,

Today, Thursday 5 May, is polling day. It’s a once in a generation opportunity to decide whether or not to reform the way our MPs are elected. There are also crucial local elections across most of England, which could have a big effect on local services in your area.

A couple of months ago, 38 Degrees members voted that we should do all we can to make sure everyone remembers to use their vote. After 10pm tomorrow, it will be too late!

There are hundreds of thousands of us involved in 38 Degrees. If we all work together to spread the word, we can remind millions of people to use their vote. So, please can you forward this e-mail to all your friends?

Stuart is voting yes: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people requires the involvement of the people and the conviction of the people that their involvement counts, whoever they support. AV is a small step in the right direction in bringing power out of the boardrooms and down to our level. It isn’t the whole journey, but it is a first step.”

Cathy is voting no: “Either go whole hog proportional, or keep it as it is rather than spending resources on a system that is pretty much as good as, if not only marginally better or worse than, the status quo.”

Lauren is voting yes: “If George Osborne, the BNP, the Murdoch Empire, and David Blunkett all want me to vote no to AV, then I’m going to vote yes!”

Joe is voting no: “AV isn’t really any more democratic though. In a way it’s worse because in many cases some votes are worth more than others because you’re mixing first preference votes with second preference votes.”

Grant is voting yes: “Living in Scotland I have found AV/STV to be an opportunity to change our voting system for the better so we are not stuck with same old parties winning the vote.”

Jon is voting no: “I should be a supporter of AV because I support UKIP / English Democrats or ANY civilised bunch who will get us out of Europe. BUT it’s no good getting us out of Europe if we are left with a bunch of ‘all things to all men’ apparachnikim at home.”

It could be decades before we get another chance to vote on reforming the voting system, particularly if there is a No vote. So lets make sure everyone has a chance to have their say!

PS If you’ve asked for a postal vote but haven’t managed to get round to posting it, you can still take your vote in person to your local polling station before 10pm, and it will still be counted. You can read more here: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/faq/voting_by_post.aspx.

PPS Remember you don’t need your polling card to vote, it is for information only. If you have other questions about voting (like how to find your polling station) there’s simple advice on how to vote here: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/how_do_i_vote.aspx.

NOVANEWS

by crescentandcross

By Paul Craig Roberts

In a propaganda piece reeking of US Triumphalism, two alleged journalists, Adam Goldman and Chris Brummitt, of the Associated Press or, rather, of the White House Ministry of Truth, write, or copy off a White House or CIA press release that “Osama bin Laden, the terror mastermind killed by Navy SEALs in an intense firefight, was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago (emphasis added) from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe, officials disclosed Monday.”

How many Americans will notice that the first paragraph of the “report” justifies CIA prisons and torture? Without secret prisons and torture “the terror mastermind” would still be running free, despite having died from renal failure in 2001.

How many Americans will have the wits to wonder why the “terror mastermind”–who defeated not merely the CIA and the FBI, but all 16 US intelligence agencies along with Israel’s Mossad and the intelligence services of NATO, who defeated NORAD, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US Air Force, and Air Traffic Control, who caused security procedures to fail four times in US airports in one hour on the same day, who caused the state-of-the-art Pentagon air defenses to fail, and who managed to fly three airliners into three buildings with pilots who did not know how to fly–has not pulled off any other attack in almost ten years? Do Americans really believe that a government’s security system that can so totally fail when confronted with a few Saudi Arabians with box cutters can renew itself to perfection overnight?

How many Americans will notice the resurrection of the long missing bin Laden as “terror mastermind” after his displacement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Guantanamo prisoner who confessed to being the “mastermind of 9/11” after being water-boarded 183 times?

Americans are too busy celebrating to think, a capability that seems to have been taken out of their education.

Americans are so enthralled over the death of bin Laden that they do not wonder why information gleamed years ago would take so long to locate a person who was allegedly living in a million-dollar building equipped with all the latest communication equipment next to the Pakistani Military Academy. Allegedly, the “most wanted criminal” was not moving from hide-out to hide-out in desolate mountains, but ensconced in luxury quarters in broad daylight. Nevertheless, despite his obvious location, it took the CIA years to find him after claiming to have gained information of his whereabouts out of captives in secret prisons. This is the image of the CIA as the new Keystone Cops.

In an immediate follow-up to the announcement that the Navy SEALs and CIA mercenaries acted in an exemplary fashion following the rules of engagement while a cowardly bin Laden hid behind a woman shield when the gunfire erupted, we have from the pressitutes that “U.S. officials conceded the risk of renewed attack. The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge bin Laden’s death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo. . . . Within a few hours, the Department of Homeland Security warned that bin Laden’s death was likely to provide motivation for attacks from ‘homegrown violent extremists’.”

John Brennan, White House counter-terrorism adviser, told reporters that “it was inconceivable that the terrorist fugitive didn’t have support in Pakistan where his hideout had been custom built six years ago in a city with a heavy military presence.”

So the claimed murder of bin Laden by the US in a sovereign foreign country with which the US is not at war, a crime under international law, has set up three more self-serving possibilities:

Terrorists will avenge bin Laden’s death, says the CIA, setting up another false flag attack to keep the profits flowing into the military/security complex and the power flowing into the unaccountable CIA.

Homeland Security can extend the domestic police state, abuse of travelers, and arrests of war protestors.

And Pakistan is under the gun of invasion and takeover (for India, of course) for shielding bin Laden.

The Israel Lobby’s representatives in the US Congress quickly fell in with the agenda. Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declared that the Pakistani Army and intelligence agency “have a lot of questions to answer, given the location, the length of time and the apparent fact that this was actually–this facility was actually build for bin Laden, and its closeness to the central location of the Pakistani army.”

The two reporters question nothing in the government’s propaganda. Instead, the reporters join in the celebration. Nevertheless they let slip that “officials were weighing the release of at least one photo taken of bin Laden’s body as part of what Brennan called an effort to make sure ‘nobody has any basis to try and deny the death.’”

As the Guardian and European newspapers have revealed, the photo of the dead bin Laden is a fake. As the alleged body has been dumped into the ocean, nothing remains but the word of the US government, which lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and al Qaeda connections, about yellowcake, about Iranian nukes, and, according to thousands of experts, about 9/11. Suddenly the government is telling us the truth about bin Laden’s death? If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I’ll let you have for a good price.

My initial interpretation of the faked bin Laden death was that Obama needed closure of the Afghan war and occupation in order to deal with the US budget deficit. Subsequent statements from Obama regime officials suggest that the agenda might be to give Americans a piece of war victory in order to boost their lagging enthusiasm. The military/security complex will become richer and more powerful, and Americans will be rewarded with vicarious pleasure in victory over enemies.

NOVANEWS

WSWS,

US and NATO officials have brushed aside charges by the Libyan government that the air strike Saturday night that killed the youngest son and three grandchildren of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a targeted assassination intended to murder Gaddafi.

Gaddafi and his wife were present when the strike virtually demolished the building, but reportedly survived the attack. Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, his youngest son and one not known to be active in the regime, was killed, as were three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren, reportedly aged 12 months to four years old.

The strike came several hours after Gaddafi gave a speech calling for a ceasefire in the civil war with the US-backed “rebels” and for negotiations with Washington and NATO. As they have done repeatedly before, the US and its allies rejected Gaddafi’s appeal out of hand.

The Libyan government accused the NATO powers of “a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country” in violation of international law. Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: “We ask the world to look into this carefully, because what we have now is the law of the jungle. How is this helping in the protection of civilians?”

NATO has acknowledged that it fired four “precision-guided” missiles into the family residence of the 29-year-old son of the Libyan ruler, in a residential part of Tripoli, but insists that the building was a “command and control” center and a legitimate target under the terms of the March 17 United Nations resolution that authorized the imposition of a “no-fly zone” and “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from government attack.

As supposed proof of the military nature of the building, NATO officials claimed that it had a bunker underneath. This, however, would hardly be surprising since Gaddafi and his family were repeatedly targeted for assassination between the colonel’s coming to power in 1969 and his rapprochement with Washington and the European powers during the 2000s.

Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, then four years old, survived one such attempt—the 1986 US bombing of the presidential compound in Tripoli—in which Gaddafi’s adopted daughter was among those killed.

On the second day of the US-British-French-NATO air war launched March 19, the same compound was bombed. The presidential compound was bombed again on April 25, and earlier last Saturday the allies, now including Italy, hit a government complex in Tripoli that housed a commission for women and children along with parliamentary staff offices.

Saturday night’s deadly strike was at least the fourth since the air war began on facilities used by Gaddafi. Last week, NATO announced that it would expand its target list to so-called command-and-control and administrative facilities—a thinly veiled threat to carry out targeted assassinations.

The reality is that the US and its European allies have turned to assassination as the focus of their efforts after six weeks of bombings have killed hundreds of Libyan troops and civilians but failed to break the Gaddafi regime, and the so-called “rebels” have proven incapable of advancing against pro-government forces.

The White House has issued no official statement on Saturday night’s air strike, and NATO officials have refused to acknowledge that Gaddafi’s son and grandchildren were killed. Both the Pentagon and NATO said Sunday they had no independent evidence to confirm the deaths.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also refused to comment on the air strikes.

On Sunday morning, enraged crowds of Libyans ransacked the British and Italian embassies and the US consulate in Tripoli, as well as United Nations offices. The UN responded by evacuating its 12 remaining international staff members.

This reaction to the murder of Gaddafi’s son and grandchildren evoked the ire of those responsible for the killings. The British government ordered the Libyan ambassador to leave within 24 hours, the Italian Foreign Ministry condemned the “acts of vandalism” on its embassy as “grave and vile,” and US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the Gaddafi regime “once again breached its international responsibilities and obligations” by failing to protect diplomatic missions in Tripoli.

On Monday, several thousand people attended the funeral of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi in Tripoli, including Gaddafi’s most prominent son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and his elder half-brother Mohammed. Residents crowded around the hearse, chanting, “Revenge, revenge for you, Libya.”

As they marched, NATO warplanes circled overhead.

The murder of Gaddafi’s family members has provoked opposition from some quarters internationally. Russia framed an accusation that the US and NATO were lying in diplomatic language, declaring that the NATO attack aroused “serious doubts about coalition members’ statement that the strikes in Libya do not have the goal of physically annihilating Mr. Gaddafi and members of his family.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Sunday accused NATO of using disproportionate force and causing civilian deaths and called for a ceasefire. It was joined by China’s Foreign Ministry, which renewed its call for a ceasefire.

Both China and Russia, which had established close ties to the Gaddafi regime, had abstained in the March 17 Security Council vote on UN Resolution 1973, which authorized the imperialist attack on Libya. They were joined in abstaining by Brazil, India and Germany.

There has been no significant protest over the US-NATO targeted killing from any section of the US political or media establishment. Stephen Hadley, a former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, criticized the air strike from a tactical standpoint, arguing that it was detrimental to the goal of eliminating the Gaddafi regime and replacing it with an outright puppet government.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday, he said, “The narrative we want to come out of this is that the Libyan people overthrew a dictator, not that we came in and toppled a despot… what we really want [Gaddafi] to do is for him to leave or to die at a Libyan hand, not an American hand.”

Leading Democrats as well as Republicans expressed no similar reservations, openly embracing assassination as official state policy. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” said, “Wherever Gaddafi goes, he is a legitimate military target.”

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, declared on CBS Television’s “Face the Nation” program: “We should be taking out his command and control, and if he is killed or injured because of that, that’s fine.”

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota said: “Gaddafi has got to go. I have said repeatedly I think you go after the pillars of his power… You cannot allow him to continue.”

NOVANEWS

by crescentandcross

The Russian government is demanding Society for the Protection of Nature in IsraHell vacate its Jerusalem offices, which Russia took possession of in March; the 19th-century building was originally built to house Russian pilgrims.

Haaretz

The Russian government is demanding that the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel vacate its offices in Jerusalem in the Sergei Courtyard complex.

The demand for the last Israeli group still using the building to vacate after departments of the Agriculture Ministry moved out six weeks ago, came about a week ago, according to SPNI head Kosha Pakman, when two representatives of the Russian Embassy came to the SPNI offices.

“We were sure they wanted to talk to us about cooperation. And then, without batting an eye, they told us they were being good enough to give us another seven months to vacate.”

In late March the Russian government took possession of the 19th-century building. Originally built to house Russian pilgrims, it was nationalized by the British Mandate and later by the State of Israel.

Over the past decade,the Russian government has pressured Israel to return control of the complex to Russia, which it did ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow in late March.

The SPNI said that the agreement with the Russian government allowed the SPNI to remain in the complex and for the complex to remain open to the public. The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that the agreement with Moscow stipulated that the Russians must coordinate the SPNI’s departure from the building with the Israeli government.

The SPNI is concerned that the demand to vacate the premises is a preliminary step toward closing the historic building, which has been noted for its architecture, to the public. The SPNI said such a step would be a loss for Jerusalem and tourism.

“We made clear to the SPNI that the agreement states that two things will not change without the consent of the state,” Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General Pini Avivi said. “One is that the continued accessibility to the public and the second is the departure of the SPNI. The Russians did not come to us in this matter and … they cannot act without our consent.”

“The Russians promised the site would remain open, but they also promised not to take unilateral steps. Therefore the concern is relevant,” a source close to the issue said yesterday.

“It’s a real concern,” said Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Naomi Tzur. “It will be irreversibly damaging even if the courtyard stays open, if public activities of the SPNI, courses, tours and lectures, do not continue,” she said.

Boris Lemper, an attorney representing the Russian Embassy, says his clients have no intention of closing the compound, but to restore it, and that the Russians would honor their agreements.

However, he also said that while the two governments had to agree for the SPNI to vacate the premises, there was no argument over the actual requirement to vacate.

Lemper rejected rumors that the compound was going to be turned into a Russian spy outpost.

Posted in ZIO-NAZI, RussiaComments Off on Russia demands IsraHell group vacate historic Jerusalem building

NOVANEWS

McClatchy

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban, who sheltered Osama bin Laden when they governed the country prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said Tuesday that it would be “premature” to comment on U.S. claims that the al Qaida leader had been killed during a raid on a compound in Pakistan.

“As the Americans did not present sufficient evidence to prove their claim and also sources close to Osama Bin Laden have neither denied nor confirmed his death, it would be premature to comment,” Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in a statement posted on the militant’s website.

The comment came as Obama administration officials in Washington debate whether to release photos of the dead bin Laden to help counter doubts that he’d been killed. News reports in the U.S. said the images include an especially grisly one that shows the 54-year-old leader with a gaping wound in his forehead.

Some U.S. officials are concerned that the images, which reportedly also include photos taken of bin Laden’s body as it was prepared for burial at sea, would be inflammatory. But their release might also silence widespread doubt among bin Laden supporters here and in the Middle East, that he’s dead.

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters in Washington that the debate revolved around “does it serve or in any way harm our interests.”

Al Qaida has been silent on the U.S. reports, though some bin Laden supporters officially acknowledged the likelihood that he’s dead.

“It is with grief that we received the news that the great holy warrior Osama bin Laden was martyred by the Americans,” read a statement from local elders from the eastern city of Jalalabad where Bin Laden reportedly lived for a while during his stay in Afghanistan. “Bin Laden stood alongside the Afghan people in the fight against the Russians and therefore, the Afghan government gave him Afghan citizenship.”

The statement asked the U.S. to deliver bin Laden’s body to the group for a proper Muslim funeral.

The U.S. has said bin Laden’s body was buried at sea from the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in keeping with Islamic practice that burial take place within 24 hours of death.

Meanwhile, U.S-led operations against the Taliban continued in eastern Afghanistan.

Jamaluddin Badr, the governor of Nuristan province, said “about 25 militants, including some foreign fighters,” had been killed in the Bargematal district since U.S.-led troops began sweeping the area Sunday.

Nuristan is a remote province in eastern Afghanistan that shares a border with the tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan, a shelter for Taliban militants. Badr said he fears that al Qaida will seek to avenge bin Laden’s death with attacks in his province, “because we do not have enough security forces.”

Posted in Pakistan & KashmirComments Off on Taliban: Reports of bin Laden’s death greatly exaggerated

NOVANEWS

The prime minister, while on official visit to London, slammed the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal signed on Wednesday in Cairo, where Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinians’ only battle is against Israel.

Haaretz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday condemned a new unity pact between the Hamas and Fatah Palestinian factions.

“What happened today in Cairo is a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism,” he told reporters during a visit to London.

Leaders of the warring Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas met in Cairo on Wednesday to sign a reconciliation agreement that ends four years of bitter strife. Israel has condemned the reconciliation, calling on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas, who “aspires to destroy Israel.”

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said at Wednesday’s ceremony that the Islamist group wanted the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state on land of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as its capital.

“Hamas was ready to pay any price for internal Palestinian reconciliation,” Meshaal continued. “The only battle of the Palestinians is against Israel.”

“Our aim is to establish a free and completely sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whose capital is Jerusalem, without any settlers and without giving up a single inch of land and without giving up on the right of return (of Palestinian refugees),” Meshaal said.

Abbas said in his opening address at the ceremony that the Palestinians were turning a “black page” on division between Hamas and Fatah.

“We announce the good news from Egypt which has always carried its national and historical responsibility towards the Palestinian people. Four black years have affected the interests of Palestinians. Now we meet to assert a unified will,” he said.

“Israel is using the Palestinian reconciliation as an excuse to evade” a peace deal,” Abbas added. “Israel must choose between peace and settlement.”

The ceremony finally got underway in the afternoon after a last-minute row over foreign policy threatened to scupper the deal.

The row that threatened to hold up the Egypt-brokered agreement signing of the reconciliation deal began when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on being the sole speaker at the event. Abbas apparently wanted to sit alone by the podium, to emphasize his status as president, despite the fact that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was supposed to speak directly following him.

The move reportedly illustrated his expectance to be the head of the interim unity government, which would allow him to control Palestinian foreign policy.

Officials from all the Palestinian factions had earlier signed the deal that Meshaal and Abbas endorsed at the ceremony.

In a symbolic step before the ceremony on Wednesday, Hamas allowed Fatah-controlled Palestine TV to broadcast from Gaza for the first time since the 2007 takeover. The station’s Gaza correspondent, Adel Zaanoun, discussed the excitement that Gazans felt about unity and invited Ismail Radwan, a Hamas leader, onto the program.

“Today we end a dark chapter in our recent history,” Radwan said. “It’s time now to work together … With the support of our people and the Arab brothers, we will make this agreement work.”

Also for the first time, Hamas permitted residents to wave yellow Fatah banners along with the green Hamas flags. Fatah displays had been banned by Hamas police in the past.

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